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Michigan Department of Natural Resources
Wildlife Division
March 2009
A Review of Deer Management in Michigan-History of Deer and Deer
Hunting in Michigan
Introduction
A Review of Deer Management in Michigan is a review of
scientific informationpertaining to deer, deer-related issues, and
deer-management options in Michigan andsummarizes the best
available biological and social science relevant to these topics.
It isnot intended to provide management recommendations for
white-tailed deer in Michigan.The information presented in this
document was obtained from published scientificliterature, agency
and university reports, unpublished agency data, and personal
communication with deer experts and is designed to aid in
completion of the MichiganWhite-tailed Deer Management Plan.
You are being provided with the following information on the
History of Deer and DeerHunting in Michigan to serve as background
information for discussions that will occurduring the April 6-7
Deer Advisory Team (DAT) meeting. You will receive sections ofthe
large document throughout the process of developing recommendations
for the DNR.All sections will be compiled and a completed document
finalized as the DAT process isconcluding.
History of Deer in Michigan
Deer have been a valuable resource in Michigan since the first
Native Americans beganto hunt them. Prior to European settlement,
Michigan had an abundant deer herd in thesouth. The mixture of
hardwoods, wetlands, bogs, forest openings and prairies was
idealfor deer. There were few deer in the virgin forests of the
north, which were inhabitedmostly by elk and moose. These mature
forests were so dense that sunlight could notreach the forest floor
and therefore little deer food was available.
As farmers and settlers moved into southern Michigan, deer
habitat was eliminated byremoval of cover for crop fields and by
unregulated shooting for food - deer were mostlygone from the
southern Lower Peninsula by 1870. Logging of forests in the
northproduced the opposite effect - more openings, brush, and young
forests - the northern
herd climbed to an estimated 1 million deer in the 1880s.
As railroads were developed and provided access into the
wilderness, market hunters shothundreds of thousands of deer. Early
measures to control market hunting, by restrictingthe time frame to
take deer but not the number of deer taken, were not very
successful.What followed were decades of ups and downs in the deer
population resulting fromchanges in hunting regulations and
available habitat.
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In 1914, Game Commissioner William R. Oates estimated that there
were only 45,000deer in Michigan and recommended changing
regulations limiting hunters to only 1 deer,with the goal to
increase the size of the deer herd. In 1921 the 3 inch rule was
enactedlimiting hunters to harvesting only deer with at least one
antler 3 inches or greater inlength. The deer herd began to
rebound. Some of the increase was due to habitat changes
as logged-over areas produced deer browse. In addition, shrubs
and other deer foodsdeveloped in many areas that had been cleared
for agriculture, but abandoned during thedepression.
By 1930, the abundance of deer was recognized. The first
discussion of deer-vehicleaccidents began. There was also a
significant amount of winter starvation and over-browsing in cedar
swamps where field investigators reported a shortage of food
andcover for the growing herd. Ilo Bartlett, the state's first deer
biologist, reported that therewere 1.125 million deer in the state
in 1937 and he began to talk about the DeerProblem. About 1/3 of
the deer at this time were in the Upper Peninsula and 2/3 in
thenorthern Lower Peninsula- only a very few deer were present in
southern Michigan.
Despite the states attempt to provide more hunting lands and to
place more deer habitatin public ownership, the deer population
continued to grow and peaked at about 1.5million deer in the late
1940s. At first with small hunts beginning in 1941 and then
inlarger ones, antlerless deer were once again allowed to be taken
by hunters in an attemptto reduce the size of the deer herd.
However, before that could happen, the habitat fordeer collapsed,
due to a combination of pressure from a large herd and an increase
inforested areas - mature stands of timber once again began to
appear on formerly loggedlands. The deer population once again
dropped.
To address the habitat problem, the Department of Conservation
(precursor to the DNR)
developed a Deer Range Improvement Program (DRIP) in 1971. The
program wasdesigned to acquire and manage critical deer habitat and
increase the deer herd to 1million deer by spring of 1981. The
success of the DRIP, along with series of mildwinters and
artificial feeding of deer by the public further propelled the herd
to a newpeak of 2.2 million deer in 1995. Signs of distress in the
herd appeared again.
History of Deer Hunting in MichiganThe first regulation enacted
to limit the taking of deer in Michigan occurred in 1859,when the
state legislature limited the taking of deer to the period of
August 1 throughDecember 31. In 1881 deer that were spotted or had
a red coat were protected, and itbecame illegal to kill deer using
traps or while the deer was in water. In 1887 the use of
dogs or artificial lights became illegal. In 1891 some areas of
the state were closed todeer hunting for the first time. The state
legislature shortened the season to 25 days withthe first bag limit
(5 deer) and created the first deer license in 1895. Michigan
sold14,477 licenses for fifty cents each with 22 non-residents
paying $25 for a Michigan deerlicense. An estimated 121,000 deer
were taken that year. In 1909 market hunting becameillegal as did
the selling of venison. The bag limit was reduced to 3 deer. Youths
lessthan 17 years of age were required to be accompanied with an
adult while deer huntingbeginning in 1915 and the bag limit was
reduced to 1 deer. That year, 21,061 resident
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licenses were sold and 178 non-resident deer licenses were sold
harvesting an estimated8,000 deer.
Antlerless deer were protected in 1921 when a deer with at least
one 3 inch antler becamethe only deer that could be legally taken.
In 1925 the firearm deer season ran from
November 15 through November 30. By 1930 over 75,000 people deer
hunted inMichigan and harvested an estimated 32,000 deer. In 1937
the first archery season wasopened from November 1-14. There were
186 archery licenses sold and the archeryharvest was recorded at 4.
That year over 150,000 people hunted deer in Michiganharvesting
almost 40,000 deer.
In 1955 mandatory reporting was discontinued in Michigan and
permanently replaced bythe use of a survey to assess the annual
harvest, which was first initiated in 1952. Therewere over 500,000
deer hunters in 1963, harvesting an estimated 124,000 deer. The
firstmuzzleloader season opened in 1975, with an estimated 8,500
hunters harvesting around150 deer.
State records for deer hunting were set in 1997 when 870,216
unique individualspurchased a deer license in Michigan and in 1998
when an estimated 582,000 deer wereharvested (Figure Z).
Statewide Annual Deer Harvest
0
100000
200000
300000
400000
500000
600000
700000
1963
1965
1967
1969
1971
1973
1975
1977
1979
1981
1983
1985
1987
1989
1991
1993
1995
1997
1999
2001
2003
2005
2007
Year
Numberofdeer
Figure Z. Estimated annual deer harvest 1963 through 2007
A complete listing of historic deer hunting regulations can be
found on the DNR web siteat
www.michigan.gov/documents/dnr/DEER_REGULATION
HISTORY_210705_7.pdf
